essex seagull
Member
Whenever i pay for parking at Lewes the machine asks for car registration plate number .which i assume would be some sort of record of parking fee being paid ?
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Parkig ticket, Lewes train Station.
- Thread starter ezmally
- Start date
Lord Bracknell
On fire
I've won appeals against Meteor charges - but would advise just telling the story straight. No elaboration, no fancy stories about using the trains regularly. Say what happened and send them the ticket that you had paid for.
Ninja Elephant
Doctor Elephant
- Feb 16, 2009
- 18,855
Honesty is deffinitely the best policy. But I would be tactically over honest.
mune ni kamome
Well-known member
Just to put my tuppence in. I won my appeal with the "car door slam must have flipped the ticket over" excuse. As far as I know that's exactly what happened. As long as you send the original in showing the correct fee they should let you off.
DanielT
Well-known member
LadySeagull
Well-known member
NO!!!!!
At least DanielT is the voice of reason here. What on earth are you lot all talking about, appealing a 'private parking ticket'?! It's a bogus PCN, and it's not a fine!
Meteor are one of hundreds of scammers in the private parking world. Read this and watch the Watchdog clip on it as well:
Dealing with from Private Parking Companies (PPCs) - FightBack Forums
NEVER APPEAL A PRIVATE PARKING TICKET. IGNORE IT AND THE DEBT COLLECTOR LETTERS THAT FOLLOW. CANNOT STRESS THAT CLEARLY ENOUGH, THIS IS A SCAM.
Meteor's letter chain is on MSE here in pictures:
Private Parking Companies' Letters: What to Expect (add your own) - MoneySavingExpert.com Forums
Please everyone, learn that you should only ever take seriously a ticket from the Police, TFL or a Council.
LadySeagull
Well-known member
Exactly the view of all private parking companies (PPCs on the forums linked above).
There is no 'appeal' (think about it...private company...profit-making...no need to comply with Traffic Management Act...people thinking they have to 'appeal' their scam invoice dressed up to look like a parking ticket, yeah, right of course they are going to allow appeals!). Even the OP was fooled, thinking that the 'ticket' had all the info it needed on it - but missing the fact that it isn't even a parking ticket.
These are FAKE PCNs just as they are in car parks for Dunelm Mill Shoreham, HomeBase, ToysRUs, Supermarkets, you name it. Easy to spot as they are called a 'Parking Charge Notice' (a real one is a Penalty Charge Notice and there's an obvious reason why PPCs copy the acronym).
If anyone pays these you need your head examined, seriously. People who fall for this, do you also send money to Nigerian phishing emailers? Would you pay me money for this reply if I made it look like an official invoice?!
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Ken Newbury
Active member
I know this sounds stupid but did the printing on the ticket say "display the ticket" or did it say "display the ticket face up". The reason I ask is that I am aware that a number of tickets elsewhere had to be cancelled because the ticket did not EXPRESSLY SAY which way up to display it so as they were displayed but upside down the parking tickets they were issued by the wardens were not valid".
LadySeagull
Well-known member
Yep that would be valid if this was actually a real parking ticket...but it's not. It's Meteor.
BensGrandad
New member
This is the correct answer just ignore it and all the threats that they make about taking court action.
Giant Seagull
That was textbook
why arent tickets sticky anymore?
Lord Bracknell
On fire
No they're not. They are part of the same company as the one that runs the railway and operates the car park.
Are you really saying that the owner of a car park has no right to charge for using it? Or to chase up non-payers?
If so, you must be very STUPID. Your version of "the law" would simply result in station car parks being closed. Who would benefit from that?
LadySeagull
Well-known member
Very stupid eh?
I didn't even bother to respond to the other incorrect statement on this thread, that suggested that Meteor were part of the Go-Ahead group. But seeing as you brought it up:
GO-AHEAD SELLS ITS METEOR OPERATIONS - Go-Ahead Group plc
What's VERY STUPID is not being able to spot a scam even when it's pointed out to you with links to forums with chapter and verse about the subject.
Was the Solicitor Tim Cary stupid when he appeared on Watchdog as well, in your view?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAIcdi9niHA
No-one is saying that the owner of a car park has no right to charge for its use. Point out where I said that because I did not, would not suggest that for a minute.
But I would say that anyone who pays or appeals a fake PCN is sadly pretty stupid, when the information on this scam is on several respected forums and has been outed in national newspapers such as the Guardian and the Times, and the subject has been covered on Watchdog 3 times in the last year. More money than sense springs to mind.
There is a huge difference between paying a landowner/occupier a fair price for parking, and being conned by a third party parasite firm (any PPC) who dress up an extortionate invoice to mimic a real parking ticket. Their business model is very much like a protection racket and they get their money because the British public are too credulous to see through a bogus PCN, or perhaps manage to ignore the fake 'ticket' but are then too scared of the bold font and pretty red capital letters on the follow-up debt collector threatograms; a predictable series of template letters that lead to nothing - no CCJ, no bailiff, nothing - because it's not a debt, not a fine at all.
To the thread starter ezmally, obviously ignore it and the lovely letter-chain which I think in Meteor's case is Roxburghe, and then Roxburghe again pretending to be a Solicitor called Graham White (Google is your friend). Thanks to the DVLA liking to sell our data at £2.50 a pop to any firm calling itself a PPC, the registered keeper will get letters like this, load of bollocks:
http://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x322/meteorparking/Roxburghe1.jpg
Or maybe they'll ring the changes with Debt Recovery Plus letters like this bloke on pepipoo posted pics of (and no, he's not really scared of the red font):
PCN Received Code - ParkFARCE - FightBack Forums
CLEAR IT'S A SCAM, EVERYONE?
I urge anyone surprised by this, to read up on it on the links I gave. You won't find any forum which tells you to pay or to 'appeal' (LOL!) a PARKING Charge Notice.
I didn't even bother to respond to the other incorrect statement on this thread, that suggested that Meteor were part of the Go-Ahead group. But seeing as you brought it up:
GO-AHEAD SELLS ITS METEOR OPERATIONS - Go-Ahead Group plc
What's VERY STUPID is not being able to spot a scam even when it's pointed out to you with links to forums with chapter and verse about the subject.
Was the Solicitor Tim Cary stupid when he appeared on Watchdog as well, in your view?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAIcdi9niHA
No-one is saying that the owner of a car park has no right to charge for its use. Point out where I said that because I did not, would not suggest that for a minute.
But I would say that anyone who pays or appeals a fake PCN is sadly pretty stupid, when the information on this scam is on several respected forums and has been outed in national newspapers such as the Guardian and the Times, and the subject has been covered on Watchdog 3 times in the last year. More money than sense springs to mind.
There is a huge difference between paying a landowner/occupier a fair price for parking, and being conned by a third party parasite firm (any PPC) who dress up an extortionate invoice to mimic a real parking ticket. Their business model is very much like a protection racket and they get their money because the British public are too credulous to see through a bogus PCN, or perhaps manage to ignore the fake 'ticket' but are then too scared of the bold font and pretty red capital letters on the follow-up debt collector threatograms; a predictable series of template letters that lead to nothing - no CCJ, no bailiff, nothing - because it's not a debt, not a fine at all.
To the thread starter ezmally, obviously ignore it and the lovely letter-chain which I think in Meteor's case is Roxburghe, and then Roxburghe again pretending to be a Solicitor called Graham White (Google is your friend). Thanks to the DVLA liking to sell our data at £2.50 a pop to any firm calling itself a PPC, the registered keeper will get letters like this, load of bollocks:
http://i1176.photobucket.com/albums/x322/meteorparking/Roxburghe1.jpg
Or maybe they'll ring the changes with Debt Recovery Plus letters like this bloke on pepipoo posted pics of (and no, he's not really scared of the red font):
PCN Received Code - ParkFARCE - FightBack Forums
CLEAR IT'S A SCAM, EVERYONE?
I urge anyone surprised by this, to read up on it on the links I gave. You won't find any forum which tells you to pay or to 'appeal' (LOL!) a PARKING Charge Notice.
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Lord Bracknell
On fire
I use Lewes station car park regularly. The last time was on Friday. When I use it, I want to find a parking place. If everyone followed the advice of LadySeagull that you can get away with not paying because the company that is contracted to manage the car park is operating a scam - and you can therefore get away with not paying - the outcome would be that Lewes station car park would be full of freeloaders. People who want to use the car park because it is convenient if you need to get a train would have to look elsewhere. In the case of Lewes, this involves driving around already congested streets, looking for an available space that, if you can find one, is likely to be a very long way from the station.
She and her ilk are spreading irresponsible, ignorant nonsense, based on an obsessive belief that car park owners are behaving unreasonably. Station car parks are an essential part of a system of national transport infrastructure that EVERYONE in the community benefits from being well managed. As I say, I'm a regular - and satisfied - customer. It's a well-managed car park and I want it to stay like that. The opinionated purveyors of the "It's all a scam" myth seem intent on wrecking what works well. As I say, that is STUPID.
She and her ilk are spreading irresponsible, ignorant nonsense, based on an obsessive belief that car park owners are behaving unreasonably. Station car parks are an essential part of a system of national transport infrastructure that EVERYONE in the community benefits from being well managed. As I say, I'm a regular - and satisfied - customer. It's a well-managed car park and I want it to stay like that. The opinionated purveyors of the "It's all a scam" myth seem intent on wrecking what works well. As I say, that is STUPID.
blue'n'white
Well-known member
It has happened to me in my local authority car park and I appealed on the grounds that others have here (ticket must have blown over when closing the door etc) and they waived the fine
Ninja Elephant
Doctor Elephant
- Feb 16, 2009
- 18,855
Brilliantly put, and I completely agree. Anyone who tells anybody to just "ignore" anything is giving really poor advice. You should never just ignore a parking ticket, as it is in this case. You certainly shouldn't ignore and follow up letters. It's terrible and irresponsible advice. There is an appeals process, you go through that if the ticket is unjust and contest it properly, you don't just stamp your foot and claim the company to be fraudsters and you have no need to pay any attention to it.
LadySeagull
Well-known member
It is NOT a parking ticket. There is NOT an appeals process - anyone who believes there is deserves to be parted with their money by such scammers TBH!
And to Lord Bracknell, I did not say 'you can get away with not paying because the company that is contracted to manage the car park is operating a scam - and you can therefore get away with not paying'. I was NOT saying you do not have to pay to park!
LadySeagull
Well-known member
Yes that is possible with local authority PCNs - but this thread is not about a real parking ticket.
Lord Bracknell
On fire
I have successfully appealed to Meteor. As far as I remember, the process I used was set out on the notice that was affixed to my car.
LadySeagull
Well-known member
It would be. All fake PCNs have the appearance of an appeals procedure stated on them becuase they mimic a Council real PCn and because they want to collect information such as who was driving, name, address etc.
And although it's very rare, sometimes they do ostensibly allow an 'appeal' but that's just to show whoever contracted them (railway or whoever) that they seem to have a fair system going and to show the BPA as well. The BPA want more appeals granted by their members at the moment so they can convince the Government that the parking industry isn't made up of rogues. So they can say 'look, here's one that was appealed earlier...' Yours would have been one of a few cherry-picked examples Meteor can hold up and say 'we allow appeals'.
In truth there is NO appeals process with most PPCs.